


Cheers, Darlin'

by onemillionbranches



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Inspired by Music, M/M, Past Relationship(s), So much angst, Songfic, Weddings, implied sex, srsly this is the perfect song for R
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 08:00:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8616025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onemillionbranches/pseuds/onemillionbranches
Summary: “You did great, Grantaire.” Enjolras had said, the first thing he said to him that night as he passed Grantaire’s table on the way to his seat. “We’re – I’m so grateful for all your help.”He smiled ruefully. “Anything. Anything for you.”Enjolras smiles lovingly at his husband, as Grantaire looks on.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the amazing song: Cheers, Darlin' by Damien Rice that near gave me a seizure the first time I heard it.  
> Seriously, it is the saddeST go listen to it and tell me it isn't Grantaire's song.

_Cheers darlin'  
Here's to you and your lover boy_

Grantaire raised his glass, footing already unsteady, and tapped his fork against it 3 times.

“A toast,” he said, as tables of people began turning around to look at him. The Amis shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

“To the newlyweds, David and Enjolras! May your marriage be filled with love and laughter.” Everyone else raised their glasses in agreement and laughed, throwing their heads back in agreement to Grantaire’s words as he tipped the glass back and allowed the wine to numb his brain.  

_Cheers darlin'  
I got years to wait around for you_

Joly’s gentle hands grasp his arm, urging him with a soft look to sit back down.

But Grantaire carried on, unwavered.

“As some of you know, Enjolras and I used to be a couple.” He slurred slightly, as surprised faces around the ballroom turned to look at the slightly drunk man. Grantaire pushed on, refusing to look at Enjolras but sensing the tension in his eyes burning holes into the suit jacket he borrowed from Courfeyrac.

“How David is able to stand waiting hours for the man to get ready is beyond me,” a round of laughter eased the crowd, “I guess I just got tired of waiting.” Grantaire ended off quietly, with a voice so soft only those at his table could hear those last words as Courfeyrac quickly stood up for his best men speech, patting R gently on the back.

He downed another glass of wine.

_Cheers darlin'  
I've got your wedding bells in my ear_

It’s a lovely wedding, Grantaire thought, nursing a flask of whisky in his left hand and ignoring the concerned looks everyone was shooting at him.

The wedding bells rang, echoing loops in his eye, burning into his memory.

He turned to watch Enjolras walking down the alter, and all of a sudden he couldn’t see anything but light.

Grantaire narrowed his eyes, squinting as if looking at the sun and saw it clear then, the tenderness and love in Enjolras’s eyes.

For a moment, his cheeks flushed and his heart leaped and he remembered, _everything._

But as Enjolras walked past him without so much a second glance, Grantaire followed his eyes and the thinly constructed veil he had created for himself shattered in that moment.

Enjolras grasped David’s hands in his own, smiling brilliantly at the other man.

Grantaire excused himself for a smoke break then, batting off the Amis’s worried looks with a snarky joke.

_Cheers darlin'  
You give me three cigarettes to smoke my tears away_

Outside the chapel, Grantaire lit a second cigarette with shaky hands.

It had begun to rain now. A shame, Grantaire thought, for a beautiful wedding like this one to be ruined by rain.

How incredibly cliché, Grantaire thought, the jilted ex reminiscing about what could have been as the rain pours and pours.

It was almost like the movies.

He lit another cigarette, watching the flame glow thru glassy eyes.  
  
                                                                                                      _And I die when you mention his name_  
_And I lied, I should have kissed you_  
_When we were running in the rain_

Enjolras was wearing that stupid red coat.

Grantaire wasn’t wearing a coat at all.

They had an argument about it before they left the house, about the weather no less, it really seemed they could argue over anything these days.

But Enjolras had been right, as he so often was, and Grantaire had the pleasure of seeing a sparkle ignite in those beautiful blue eyes as the first rain drop fell on their heads.

“You owe me 10 bucks,” Enjolras said, shrugging out of the coat and holding it over the two of them like a shelter of sorts.

“Do you accept payment in kisses?” Grantaire said, nuzzling into Enjolras’s warmth, stubble grating against soft skin as he kissed into Enjolras’s laughter, makeshift shelter completely forgotten as the rain poured onto them.

They broke away panting for breath and laughing, feeling incredibly silly as Grantaire grabbed that stupid red coat in one hand and Enjolras in other and made a dash for their apartment.

He looked back at Enjolras, golden curls wet and stuck against his head, blue eyes glimmering fiercely, head tossed back in laughter.

Grantaire wanted to stop and kiss him again, but they were in the middle of the road and it was raining and their clothes were beginning to get soaked through.

There will always be time for more in the future.    
  
                                                                              _What am I darlin'?_  
_A whisper in your ear?_  
_A piece of your cake?_  
_What am I, darlin?_

 _The boy you can fear?_  
_Or your biggest mistake?_  
They moved in synchronization, always.

Even if they didn’t agree on a single thing during the day, they could find the compromise at night, always find their common ground when they were back together in bed, joint.

Push and pull. Laboured breaths and heavy pants.

Grantaire kept his eyes open, always, he didn’t want to miss a moment of Enjolras, especially not like this.

“I love you,” he whispered in Enjolras’s ear. It was the first time he had said it.

A smile, a thrust, and both of them were falling towards completion, falling towards each other.

In those final throes, Enjolras opened his eyes finally and stared right at Grantaire as he reaching towards his climax. “I love you too, I love you, I –“

And Grantaire felt himself break then, his jagged pieces falling into Enjolras who was swallowing him, enveloping him in his light, his supernova.

Grantaire never felt happier to be blind.

_Cheers darlin'  
    I just hang around and eat from a can_

He was more involved in the wedding planning than he had intended to.

He did it with incredible detachment, as if observing himself from somewhere above instead as he made calls to caterers and florist and mailed envelopes with the rest of the Les Amis.

“You did great, Grantaire.” Enjolras had said, the first thing he said to him that night as he passed Grantaire’s table on the way to his seat. “We’re – I’m so grateful for all your help.”

He smiled ruefully. “Anything. Anything for you.”

A moment of tenderness flited across Enjolras’s face.

“Promise me you won’t drink too much,”

  
_Cheers darlin'_  
_I got a ribbon of green on my guitar_  


_“_ Promise me you won’t drink too much _,”_ Enjolras said, passing the guitar to Grantaire. “Pass this to ‘Ferre, he’ll keep it with the other instruments.”

It was his first sold-out gig, moderately sized venue, and they were giddy from happiness.

Grantaire smiled, words already beginning to slur from the shots he had sneaked before the show. “Join us?”

“Nah,” Enjolras shook his head, curls bouncing about his face. He fished around in his pockets for a while before pulling out a strip of green ribbon.

Grantaire raised an eyebrow as Enjolras tied the ribbon around the neck of his guitar, securing it in a clumsy knot and scribbled the date roughly on the satin.

“So you’ll never forget this day, and how you feel now,” he said shyly, eyes cast down as if he had just shared a deep secret.

Grantaire ran his calloused fingers along the silk, felt the soft material give against his skin.

He tilted Enjolras’s head up and kissed away his worries, kissed away his sins.

 _Cheers darlin'_  
_I got a beauty queen_  
_To sit not very far from me_  


Everyone came in a pair, or a trio for Joly, Bossuet and Musichetta.

Grantaire came with Jennifer, a beauty queen he met 2 weeks ago at a bar he could barely remember.

Eponine had offered to come as his date, but he declined, not wanting her to have to spend her night trying not to look at Cosette and Marius.

She grabbed onto his arm then, as he stood facing Enjolras, already half drunk.

“Congratulations!!!!!” she yelled, laughing incoherently into Grantaire’s hair.

Enjolras straightened his back, stoic and professional now, and reached out a hand in greeting. “You must be R’s new girlfriend then,” he said.

Grantaire tried not to listen out for hints of jealousy, tells of regret.

He heard nothing but concern.

“She is,” he slurred, spinning Jennifer around in his arms and kissing her, tasting only the artificial taste of strawberry lip balm and the acidity of tequila. “We are very in love,” he said, stretching out the R sound.

Enjolras only smiled, “I see that. I’m happy for you, R. You deserve to be happy.”

And with a gentle pat on the back, he was off to greet their other friends.

Grantaire sat back down and downed another glass of wine, willing the night to take him away.

  
_I die when he comes around_  
_To take you home_  
_I'm too shy_  
_I should have kissed you when we were alone_  


When the crowd had dissipated Grantaire had stumbled home alone after rejecting multiple offers from friends to take him back.

He could barely walk a straight line, barely see straight, but still somehow knew the combination code to his – no Enjolras’s – apartment by heart.

He pressed the code.

“Who’s there?” Enjolras’s voice rang thru the static.

“Me. It’s me Apollo, open up.” Grantaire leaned against cool metal door.

“R? What are yo – hold on I’m coming down.”

He heard a hushed explanation, and the dial tone as lights came on from the stairwell.

And Apollo appeared then, red pyjamas bottoms and frayed white shirt, hair tousled in a way Grantaire was all too familiar with and he _ached_ , ached to reach out and touch.

“Are you alright R? I’m taking you home now just give me a moment I’ll go grab the keys,” Enjolras turned around hastily, but not before Grantaire could grab onto his wrist and pull him closer.

They were nose to nose now, breathing in the same air.

“Do you – do you ever thi – do you ever think of me? Of us?” he blurted out, alcohol hazing his already clouded mind.

Enjolras looked defeated and tired, human for once, as he answered. “I’m – I’m married now, R. It’s all in the past now. You’ve move on, and so have I.”

Grantaire scoffed then, and pulled Enjolras’s hand onto his racing heart.

“Just tell me this one thing, E, and I’ll go.”

“I’m taking you home now,” Enjolras said, pulling away.

Grantaire pulled him back closer, so close that now he could see the blond hairs of Enjolras’s eyelashes, make out the freckles he used to trace as constellations on his face. His thumb brushed Enjolras’s lip and he felt the other man shiver.

Grantaire leaned in and felt Enjolras’s lips part in anticipation.

The loud buzz that rang from behind then jolted the pair apart as David came out in matching pyjamas, a concerned expression plastered on his face.

“Grantaire? Are you drunk? Let’s take him home Enj,” Enjolras nodded in agreement, not looking up into Grantaire’s eyes.

“Ah, I’ll be fine,” Grantaire smiled, more sober than he ever felt all of a sudden, “Just dropped by to congratulate Enjolras for finally breaking his celibacy,” he winked, walking away backwards as he waved to the couple, turning away before he could hear what they had to say.  

 

  
_Oh what am I? What am I darlin'?_  
_I got years to wait..._

Enjolras twirled their joint hands.

They were lazing about, bodies cradled together, not really paying attention to some stupid dog movie when Enjolras asked.

“Will you wait for me like that?” He cocked his head upright and turned to face Grantaire.

“What, if you died and I go to a train station every day hoping you’ll show up?” He laughed, brushing his hand along Enjolras’s cheeks.

Brow’s furrowed, Enjolras continued. “You know what I mean.” He said, serious all of a sudden, sitting upright, no longer in Grantaire’s arms.

Grantaire mirrored his actions, turning Enjolras around to face him.

“Always,” he said, serious now, looking deep into those blue eyes.

Enjolras laughed suddenly, breaking the spell. “You sap, I’m just messing with you.” He laid back down, cradled against Grantaire’s body and was soon lulled to sleep.

“I’ve got years to wait,” Grantaire whispered into Enjolras’s hair, smiling as he closed his eyes and circled his arms around them tighter.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully you listened to the song whilst reading this fic for full immersive effects of the pain I felt writing this :-)  
> Also, my first fic ever!! Please tell me how this is, I really appreciate feedback :-)


End file.
